Easter with the Avengers
by BooksEqualsLife
Summary: Just a one-shot for SpectrumLight - Everyone gathers at Stark Tower for Easter, and well... Yes, of course fun ensues! Loki/Nat, Steve/Maria, Thor/Jane, Tony/Pepper - all pairings are light, I promise.


**Hello, lovelies! This is a special one-shot written for SpectrumLight, being that she was the 150****th**** reviewer for my other Avengers fic, Exclusive Rights. You don't need to be reading that one in order to be reading this one, so no worries. :D This is a good one, and I got so excited when I got the prompt! Little fireworks in my head, practically.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own the original thought (SpectrumLight, and SunsetWanderer do) or the characters. Sad face.**

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"No, no, no, no, you don't understand!" he yelled, throwing his hands in the air with frustration, turning his back on the world. He pinched the bridge of his nose, reigning in the anger. "Pepper, when I said _colored_ deviled eggs, I meant _colored_ deviled eggs!"

"I really doubt that the others are going to feel this strongly about it," she chided with an eye roll.

"But they are going to be here _any minute_, and the eggs are _just plain white_!" Tony exclaimed, gesturing to the plain pieces of food. "The whole point of Easter is to color eggs -"

"_Pretty _sure it's a religious holiday -" she interrupted, looking up at the ceiling with a smile.

"And this is just like _any_ other Sunday, where I'm eating regular, _plain _eggs!"

"Tony, a regular Sunday consists of you having a massive hangover, and me having to clean everything up," she pointed out.

The familiar whir of Jarvis's British accent permeated the room, "Might I suggest painting eggs to be an activity for today's celebrations, sir?"

Tony pouted for a moment before nodding. "Wait, we do have more eggs, don't we?" he asked his girlfriend accusingly.

"You made me buy 12 dozen, Tony."

"It's a gross, mathematically significant," he fired off rapidly.

"However it's significant, I can assure you that we have plenty of eggs," she assured him.

"Sir, Dr. Banner is at the door. Would you like me to let him in?" Jarvis asked politely.

"Go ahead, Jarvis," Tony brushed off, looking sadly at his dejected deviled eggs on the buffet table, finding solace in playing with the plastic green, streamer-like grass.

Banner shyly emerged from the elevator, looking at the vast area of space that the party was in. It wasn't that the scientist hadn't been to Tony's home before; he had been there very often, but he never got over the largeness of the place. He was a simple man and didn't seem to need extravagance in his lifestyle in order to be happy. It was how he had survived so well in a run-down area like Calcutta. And he had been happy there too.

"Here's Bruce-y!" Tony yelled happily, embracing his friend before shoving him at the buffet table. "Ever so punctual, as always," he chimed.

Noticing the blush creeping into his face, Pepper quickly rushed, "It's a good trait to have. Maybe Tony could pick up a few of your habits, and make my life easier."

"You wouldn't love me any other way, and you know it," Tony teased, earning yet another eye roll from the strawberry blonde.

"It's very beautiful," Bruce mentioned, gesturing to the table. "Oh, deviled eggs!"

"They were supposed to be colored -" Tony started.

"But, we decided that we would do that as a group once everyone got here," Pepper added.

Agent Clint Barton was next to arrive, normal S.H.I.E.L.D attire locked away in a closet while he wore a pleasant button-up shirt and jeans. And while his casual clothing displayed what would appear to be a laid-back individual, it was clear that even on times of peace, Barton was still looking for any reason to suspect something was wrong. This prompted a series of playful teases from the host, claiming that he "had a stick up his ass."

Steve and Maria came along next, a baby car seat being engulfed by the Captain's muscular arms. It hadn't been long after their latest apocalyptic catastrophe that Agent Maria Hill went on maternity leave, becoming a proud mother of her daughter, Sunny. Steve had been beside himself with joy at the thought of being a father to a smaller being. Where Maria was hesitant in her parenting, Steve made up for in boundless confidence.

Watching as he gently resting the car seat on the sofa, Maria then watched at her immortal soldier charged off to the kitchens with a bottle.

"4th of July seems too enthusiastic about all of this," Tony remarked, watching with distaste as Pepper ran over the tightly bundled infant, beaming.

"I can't tell you how many parenting books he's read," Maria agreed with a nod. Nevertheless, she looked down happily at her daughter, watching as her big blue eyes watched Pepper's twiddling fingers with fascination. Sunny giggled, reaching for the appendages and then promptly sucking a digit into her toothless mouth, earning an "Aw" from Pepper. "She's teething," Maria mentioned, running a hand over the baby's small tuft of blond hair.

"Jotunheim? What would ever make you desire that place?!" Thor's booming voice erupted at he, Loki, and Natasha stalked through the elevator. "It's empty and terrible!"

Loki seemed unbothered by the loudness his older brother was exuding, giving a mere shrug. "No one expects anything from that place. Of course, the Jotuns would have to all be dead first, but I imagine that there is some untapped well of wealth. No one would suspect a downgraded realm like Jotunheim to come back, but beings often forget that it was once one of the most powerful realms of the cosmos. It could be restored, and imagine the surprise on their faces when they learn that Jotunheim is the realm to conquer their own!" he pointed out with a sadistic laugh.

"It's cold!" Thor complained.

"That doesn't affect me, and you know it, Thor," Loki retorted.

"I would think you would want Vanaheim," Natasha chimed in, looking up at Loki quizzically. "Being that it's so bountiful with magic and things."

"Loki wouldn't be able to conquer that people," Thor said heartily, Loki now scowling with disapproval. "If we even were to know where the blasted realm is, they would see his intent long before he would have a chance to act upon it. They have the gift of foresight," Thor informed.

"It would be pleasant to be accepted among a kind who do not look so rudely down on magic," Loki contributed, giving a pointed look to Thor. "Simple brawn of the vessel is not the only strength in one's being."

Natasha smiled thoughtfully at Loki, getting a conspiratorially wink in return. Abandoning his side, she quickly walked over to Clint, being tightly hugged in welcome. It had been months since she had seen the archer, and though her lover and he hated one another, she couldn't help but miss him. He had been her best friend for too long, and she had lost enough people in her life already to worse scenarios. "I've missed you, Nat," Clint said, and she patted him on the back before pulling away. "How's Asgard?"

"It's beautiful," she admitted fondly. "It was a terrifying place when I first went there, but now… I consider it… home."

She saw Clint's eyes flicker to Loki, who was currently laughing at Steve's return as the doting father. "He's…"

"Treating me like a damn princess," she finished.

"I found the dye!" Tony boldly announced, catching all of their attention. He held several colorful boxes high in his hands, each with decorative pictures of bunnies and eggs. "I counted a dozen boxes, so, that means that everyone gets their own box."

"Jane and Darcy too," Thor chimed in immediately. "They were planning on attending."

"Yeah, sure," Tony shrugged off, eagerly setting out dirty newspapers over an empty table.

"Oh, and I actually invited someone from Asgard," Natasha said, walking up to the dozen boxes. "She should be coming soon." She paused, picking one up. "This seems stupid," she commented as she looked at the back of the box.

"I wholeheartedly agree, love," Loki mentioned, picking up a box of his own, one she noticed had a dark shade of green. Upon her stare he shrugged, eyeing her own box decorated with sparkly eggs.

"I don't care if it seems stupid," Tony hurried, now running to grab a box that had funny face stickers in them. "This is what we are doing; it is Easter, and this is what people do on Easter."

The elevator chimed again, and two animated women came rushing out, one speaking quickly about some astronomical phenomena, while the other was singing to a song being played over her iPod. Thor quickly stood from his seat and ran to Jane, engulfing her smaller body with his lumberjack one, making her laugh in surprise. Darcy merely looked on with a bored expression until she saw Sunny in Steve's arms, and she squealed with joy, running to the baby and cooing at her.

"Far too many people," Loki said in Natasha's ear.

"It's for one day," she pointed out, taking a seat at the newspaper covered tabled.

The final arrival in their company was not much later, gravitating towards Natasha at the table and remaining silent. Natasha introduced her to their party as Lys and then proceeded to help her organize the egg dyeing process.

It took a long time for everyone to get situated at the table, and then start setting up their eggs. Tony, having seemed unable to understand that the eggs needed to be hardboiled prior to dyeing, accidentally dropped one of his eggs into the dye slightly harder than necessary. The yellow of the yolk quickly diffused through the graduated cylinder, destroying the dark red of the dye. While everyone found his saddened look quite hilarious, it wasn't long after that Thor, Loki, and Steve all ruined their dyes.

Steve politely abandoned the job, deciding to play more with his daughter. Loki simply gave up with a huff and decided that egg dye was not going to make a fool out of him. Thor, on the other hand, really tried, it was true, and he went to extensive efforts to protect the remaining dyes It wasn't until all of them had a swollen, yellow lump at the bottom that he accepted his failure, Jane laughing and allowing him to use her own.

"We should have had an Easter egg hunt!" Tony blurted once they observed their rather poorly designed eggs. "Or a scavenger hunt!"

"What's that?" the three Asgardians chirped from their seats. Lys had opened up a little more during the visit, and now even seemed to be lively and filled with wonder at the prospect of being on Midgard. While she looked curious, Thor appeared excited, and Loki looked concerned.

"Well, it would have been when I would have written clues and we would have run around the Tower until someone had found the treasure that the clues would lead up to!" Tony explained.

"It's a kid's game," Bruce added lightly, staring intently at his egg, fine paintbrush in hand as he traced an intricate design on the fragile shell. "Fortunately, Tony's a big kid, so I guess it works." "I am not doing a scavenger hunt, Tony," Steve said firmly.

"Well, he doesn't have any clues written out, so don't worry about it," Pepper noted.

"Actually, I foresaw this opportunity, and did write out a few clues," Tony declared proudly, looking smugly at Pepper.

"And it was so adorable how you tried to hide them from me," Pepper teased. "Doesn't really work when I know each of your hiding spots."

"What did you do?!" Tony exclaimed, looking hurt.

She smiled, reaching into her pocket and pulling out an index card, handing it over to her boyfriend. "I made a scavenger hunt for you. At the end, you'll find them," she said simply.

Tony stood from his seat, vanishing from the room, index card in hand while the others merely laughed at his assistant's sense of humor. "What'd you do with the clues really?" Steve asked curiously.

"Burned them," she said, everyone erupting in a fit of laughter once more. "The clues lead to a pile of charred ash in his office."

"That's… a little harsh," Steve remarked, looking after his fellow Avenger.

"He made a comment about percentages a while back that I didn't appreciate, and I just hadn't gotten back at him for it," Pepper excused with a shrug. "He'll know when he sees it. I made it obvious."

When Tony finally did return, his face was dejected and he took his seat next to Pepper with a slump. "12%?" he guessed.

"An argument can be made for 15," she confirmed, making him scoff.

As the evening finished, and guests were beginning to depart, Natasha went to give Clint a final hug, only to witness him laughing happily with Lys, the beautiful blonde laughing just as much, and blushing in excitement. Natasha smiled at the two, nodding in satisfaction before feeling the sturdy chest of Loki pressing against her back. "Did your scheme work the way you wished, love?" he asked into her ear.

"Indeed it did," she agreed, humming in joy as he pressed a kiss to her temple. "Let's go home."

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**Well, there it is! I hope that you enjoyed it! I must say that this was a hard write! But in a good way; I love a challenge. And I hope that you liked your OC's! Quick thing though… **Sun**ny… And Lys means "**light**" in Norwegian. Those two words remind you of anyone? Haha, I hope you get it! Cause then my whole credibility on cleverness is completely shot otherwise…**

**Anyway, again, I hope that the two of you liked it! And awesome prompt!**

**Everybody leave a review!**


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